12-06-2014, 11:37 PM
(12-06-2014, 10:14 PM)toseland Wrote: thats the thing.. horsepower is what sells cars.. torque is what wins races, as torque is a measure of the actual turning force about a pivot,
Torque is what is responsible for getting you there faster, (0-60, 30-70 etc) Horsepower is just a nifty measurement to give the engine itself some context (they go hand in hand however)
you have to appreciate tho, that engine specs on paper mean jack really unless its the same car, with the same gearing, under the same conditions, at the same time, etc etc
he might have had a lower power band, closer gearing, etc etc.. but his GTi would have struggled 4up with luggage where i am betting the tiguan would have felt almost identical as it did when empty.. THATS the beauty of torque
Not necessarily - That's why you have a gearbox. That's what affects torque to the wheels - that's why a Honda VTEC motor making 200hp is still accelerating as fast as a Diesel motor making 200hp at the same road speed - it's just that usually the Diesel engine has a more usable powerband than the VTEC motor - the actual torque *figure* is nothing to do with it, that's the curve.
It's the same reason that if you wanted you could use a 200hp VTEC engine spinning at 9000rpm but only making 116lb.ft to apply 500lb.ft torque to an object a gearbox gearing it right down - yet you can also use a big arse lazy 200hp Diesel motor that makes say 900lb.ft torque at 1150rpm, but gear it up and it'd also apply that same 500lb.ft torque to an item - they're both making 200hp - just at different engine speeds.
The speed of the output shaft of the two engines would STILL be spinning at 2100RPM.
Always.
This proves that one engine is not better than the other in terms of work done at one given power output.
One engine is not doing more work than the other - the Diesel won't be applying more torque to the final shaft, the Honda wouldn't have any more problems with it utilising the 500lb.ft...
It's just that the Honda will be using way more fuel, you're spanking the shit out of it, it's not going to last, it's hard to keep it up there... The Diesel is doing 1150RPM! It's going to sit there all day doing that!
OK my point is extreme as you can see, but you can see it's not just peak figures... It's all about the curve.
